MALIBU BEACH
This day when the clouds lifted
When sun weak and pale filtered through
storm grey clouds
Sea gulls circled over foam wet rocks on Malibu Beach
Old men in running shoes sleep beneath
shopping carts
wrapped in tired worn blankets
Possessions wrapped in plastic bags
Old women gaze into the dirty surf
Remembering the days on Sunset Strip
The casting calls their names in lights
A promise of fame
a touch of fortune
A distant memory in the
backwater of their youth
A proposition made with tomorrow
And like the incoming waves
it is gone again.
Bionote
Karl W. Carter, Jr. was born in New Orleans, LA and grew up in Los Angeles, CA. He
began writing poetry while attending Howard University School of Law. He is the author
of two books of poems, Sojourner and Other Poems (CreateSpace, 2010), and A Season
in Sorrow (Broadside Press, 1972) and the poetry broadside Three Poems (Broadside
Press, 1972). His poetry appears in numerous anthologies, including: Understanding the
New Black Poetry: Black Speech and Black Music as Poetic Reference (William Morrow,
1973); Synergy D.C. Anthology (Energy Black South Press, 1978); The Poet Upstairs: An
Anthology of Washington Area Poets (Washington Writers Publishing House, 1979); Off
the Record: An Anthology of Poetry By Lawyers (Legal Studies Forum, 2004); Freedom
In My Heart: Voices From the United States National Slavery Museum (National
Geographic, 2009); and Words of Protest, Words of Freedom, Poetry of the American
Civil Rights Movement (Duke University Press, 2012, ). Delaware Poetry
Review(2013); Beltway Poetry Quarterly: (2014); Poet Lore , Fall / Winter 204; and The
Broadkill Review Vol. 8 No.4
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